Tea with edible flowers Part 2

Welcome!

All kaleidoscopes by inkspired and KaleidoCam


I do love tea parties, and tea cups
and all that goes with it.

I think of tea cups as a little piece of art
and history that I can own, and enjoy.

Let’s have some more tea party flower fun!

I am excited to try out some edible flower recipes now!

Flavored ice cubes, Let’s Mingle blog, Pinterest 

I was surprised to learn there are so many
flowers that you can eat.
Do pay attention and do a little research.

Clara Jane/Baking-Ginger, Pinterest

There are some flowers that you can only eat certain parts.
Sometimes only 1 part is edible,
and the other parts can make you quite sick.

Then there are those flowers that eating 1 or more parts
can actually lead to death.

You can never be too careful, or informed.
Not sure about a flower part?
Don’t eat it until you have checked it out.

Isn’t the internet a marvelous thing?

Adamant Kitchen, Pinterest 

Adamant Kitchen, via Pinterest


The photo above shows full bloom dandelions,
but actually you want to pick the flower heads when
they are still fairly tightly curled and low to the ground.
Once the bloom becomes full it will have a bitter taste.

But hey, the photo looks pretty!
Here is another pretty photo using dandelions.
I want to try this recipe out too!

Rural Housewife, blog, via Pinterest

Polly put the kettle on!

‘Sing Mother Goose’ illustrated by
Marjorie Torrey, 1945’

A coral peony

I think this peony jelly is just beautiful.
What a great gift idea for those hard to buy for friends.
Your homemade peony jelly is sure to be unique!

PureWOW, posted on Pinterest

Here is another flower jelly, using sunflowers-

The Nerdy Farm Wife, posted on Pinterest


Follow the link and you should find the exact recipes
for all the photos I am posting.
If you have trouble finding one,
simply use your search engine to type in the recipe name.

Septemberwildflower.tumblr.com{

Here are a few ideas on how to set 

a beautiful tea table.

You need to show off all your wonderful

food and flowers you made.

I will address the tea table in a later blog!

While the china does not ‘match’, it works because it is all
in the same color groups, and strength of color.
Pastel with pastel
Blue, pink and white


Remember 
your food items are part of the decorations also.
Take a little time to make them extra pretty.

The Enchanted Cove, posted on Pinterest

I apologize for being so slow in putting
out more blogs.
I look for a teapot photo, go off on a bunny trail
and end up looking at Civil War era
photographs that have been colorized realistically...
🙄

‘Til next time,
inkspired

Daisy, Daisy, Give me your answer, do

Welcome!

All kaleidoscopes by inkspired and KaleidoCam 

“Daisy, Daisy,

Give me your answer, do.

I’m half crazy

All for the love of you...”

- Harry Dacre, 1892

partial lyrics for ‘A Bicycle Built For Two’

Artist Unknown

in the style of Harrison Fisher

I would like to continue with my

Language of Flowers theme.

Vintage seed packet, 1930

Today is

The Daisy

Gerbera Daisies

I have always thought daisies were 

white petals around a yellow center.

Wrong!!

To my surprise, there are numerous 

kinds of daisies,

in all the colors of the rainbow!

The above daisies are a ‘newish’ color combo

of African Daisies.

If you want to delve into the varieties

it is suggested you start with the

27

most common daisies.

Wow.

Artist - Cicely Mary Barker

In the Victorian Era, England

flowers were a special way of sending secret notes

from your secret admirer.

(Or not so secret!)

A scrap of ‘glanzbilder’, an early form of scrapbook decorations

originally produced from Germany

Not wanting to repeat myself

(and thereby possibly boring my readers)

feel free to use the search box
for many past flower blogs.

Some labels to look for are:

Language of flowers

flower meanings

Victorian 

Vintage art

or you could type in the name of the flower 

you are searching for.

A beaded daisy necklace by Sonysree Creations

Pinterest

Photographer - Brigitte Lorenz

I found that different Language of Flowers lists

had different meanings for the daisy-

Innocence

I love you truly

Attachment 

Purity

Motherhood

I partake your sentiment (!)

Gentleness

Cheer

Quite a variety.

 Courtesy thegreenhousepeople.co.uk

Artist - Walter Crane
1845-1915
from “A Floral Fantasy in an Old English Garden”

By inkspired

Vintage illustration by Elizabeth Gordon

Vintage Song sheet cover art for 
a novelty two-step - “Daisy Rag”

Found on Pinterest with a description in Russian (guessing here).
Ribbon Daisies

This is a reproduction of the original, published 1884
By Kate Greenaway (1846-1901)


‘Flowers are the music of the ground.
From earth’s lips
Spoken without a sound.’

- Edwin Curran 

Published 1888

 Vintage art, artist unknown

A daisy flower mandala photograph 
We Heart It, Pinterest




‘Happiness held is the seed;
Happiness shared is the flower.’

- John Harrigan 

Vintage greeting card, shared by The Sparrow60 on Pinterest 


The word ‘daisy’ is thought to come from an 
Old English word that means
Day’s eye.
This refers to the daisy’s habit of turning toward the sun,
And when night comes they close their petals.

Vintage Illustration ‘Daisy Fairy’ by Cherubini?


In 2018 “Daisy” ranked as the 
169th most popular girls name in the USA.

Not bad!

In England and Wales in 2018
“Daisy” ranked 28th most popular name for girls.

Found on Pinterest


I hope you have enjoyed this blog on 
The Language of Flowers
the Daisy.
I sure had fun putting it together!

‘Til next time,
inkspired

Yellow going, going, gone

Welcome

All kaleidoscopes by inkspired and KaleidoCam 

Hawaii became the 50th state of
the United States of America in August, 1959.
It is the only island state.

Kauai
In fact, Hawaii is made up of over 135 islands!
Originally found on all of the main islands,
the yellow hibiscus flower is the State Flower and is found only in Hawaii.

When Hawaii was still a territory in 1923
the hibiscus was chosen as Hawaii’s flower.
No color was specified, and people got confused.
Artists started using the red hibiscus in travel posters and advertisements. But some used other colors.

It wasn’t until 1988 that Hawaii designated
the Yellow Hibiscus as their state flower.

Fun Fact:
Each of the islands that make up Hawaii have
an official designated  flower!

There are over 200 different colors of hibiscus now!
Hibiscus can be grown in common gardens and is a favorite with its’ showy 4 - 6 inch blooms.
Even though it is called a bush, 
it can grow up to 30 feet high!

Unfortunately 
the Yellow variety is almost extinct.
It is extremely rare to see one growing wild.

Of the 3 subspecies of yellow hibiscus,
all 3 are listed as critically endangered.

Artist Wendy Hollkuder

In 2007 there was a large fire on the island of
Oahu, which destroyed 85% of the yellow hibiscus growing there.
Other contributing factors are cattle, pigs and goats; alien plants* and urban development that destroy the flowers and their habitat.

*not ‘alien’ like green with 3 eyes and 7 arms alien,
but plants that have NOT come to the islands
by a natural way - 
think seeds in bird droppings, the wind, etc.

Usually alien plants, animals, bugs, etc. become established because of something humankind did.
Sometimes we think we can improve the balance of Nature, and make things ‘better’.
Sometimes we are just careless, 
such as when a Captain would let his ship get dirty, and sick rats would jump onboard.
When the ship stops at a different port
the rats jump off, thinking this may be better
than riding around in storms!
Now the new port has sick rats with a 
new disease to the people.
Those rats are ‘alien’ disease carriers.

Thinking back to the 1860’s the yellow hibiscus 
was an exotic flower from an exotic land far away!
I have no idea how available they were to be included 
in a small posy of flowers that was full of hidden messages and secret meanings.
 However the Victorians did have a sentiment attached to it-

Delicate Beauty

What a huge compliment that would have been to a young lady of the times.

Women were to be treasured, and placed on pedestals of purity and virtue and...
Being Delicate and Helpless and Beautiful
were ideal traits!

Antique illustration of a fainted woman with smelling salts being applied

Have you ever heard of “fainting couches”?
This is what they were originally for!

Using a ‘fainting’ type couch for a Hollywoodland glamour shot.

And THAT is the 
Language of the Flower Hibiscus.

If you were a Victorian Young Lady
you could swoon about now,
but check to make sure there is a soft place 
to land before you swoon!

As always when I write a blog
I have learned several things
new-to-me.
Thanks for riding along and 
sharing the adventure with me!

Here are some of the places I visited for information: Kapinalansdale.com
Wikipedia
Pinterest with multiple authors/artists
USA-facts-for-kids.com

Language of Flowers/ illustrated by Kate Greenaway
Originally 1884, London
Then by Dover Publications, unabridged edition, 1990, USA

‘Til next time,
inkspired